Some unselfish sewing #2 tops

Next up- three shirts. When not feeling punky or doing the garden, OH likes to look very tailored and sharp. HRT has made her boobs grow, so only one or two of her shirts will now fasten. I nagged until she sat still and matched fabrics to shirt patterns. She chose these:

#1 An unidentified textured, stretch woven, striped in rich blue and purple. This was a gift from Kath- thanks Kath! Pattern selected Kwiksew 2849, view A without the weird little sleeve pocket. I cut medium, and shortened the sleeve by 2″. Fortunately, I paid attention to the instructions, or I wouldn’t have noticed that there was only 3/8″ seam allowance…so much for my plan to use French seams. Overlocker all the way..mostly. Actually because the fabric turned out to be very stretchy, I sewed first, then reinforced by overlocking. This worked really well, and I’m confident that the seams are strong. I used a tiddly bit of a rather lovely shot taffeta in navy to face the collar and collar band.

This came from a gorgeous flouncy, lace-tiered skirt which I bought in…er…about 1983 and never wore. Well, its day finally came. I top-stitched a lot too, to get nice crisp edges, and hand sewed the hem to get neat curves: machining would have bubbled up. Poppers to fasten the front, one happy wife.

Ooh I like this…

#2 Vogue 8833 in a crisp navy stretch poplin I bought from Tia Knight a couple of years ago, lovely stuff. This has different front panels according to cup size. I cut a 16C, and it’s great. Quite a bit of shortening was needed in the body and sleeves (did I mention that I married a hobbit?). We chose view F…well, I did. It has cuffs and a tab collar. OH wasn’t keen at first. I wanted to make it more interesting to win her over, so grabbed a remnant of a sort of paisley/Indian print in shades of blue to use as facings. Another very straightforward make…well it would have been if I’d bothered to read the instructions. I dashed on and attached the facings to both front pieces, then realised I was supposed to leave them un stitched above the dot…after I’d already trimmed and turned and pressed of course. Unpicking and fixing that was precarious- when I trim, I really trim! Then I found I’d french seamed the side panels to the front…and should have left a gap for the waist tie.

READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FAIRY!

(I blame Joe Abercrombie for that one, I was engrossed in listening to ‘Half the World’.) Onward and upward. The dark fabric and thread was a pain in the bum to be honest, and the bits I had to unpick were more so. Still, it fits really well, and is another success. OH decided that rather than have a conventional fastening on the cuffs, she wanted them partly folded back, and fastened with a popper to show off the facing.

Nice one darling!

#3 is Vogue 1440 again. This gorgeous shirt is actually the reason I bought the pattern, yet turned out to be the last thing I made. It’s a flared tunic, with a really interesting racer back detail, armhole bands, fly front and a slit at the back.

We opted for a length of very fine white cotton lawn from MyFabrics, popper fastenings again. I interfaced with silk organza. The pattern only suggests interfacing the collar and collar band- I also interfaced the front bands and the armhole bands. I should also have interfaced the back V band, but didn’t realise this until too late- it’s a very unusual construction. I cut size 16 again, and removed 6″ in length. I’d read a few reviews and decided to fold out some of the flare from the side seams as well. It’s a lovely pattern to sew, and because of course the organza isn’t fusible, I did quite a lot of hand basting on this. I only had to unpick that back V panel once, as I misinterpreted the instructions… OK, I didn’t read them properly, satisfied?

OH tried it on yesterday morning, still unhemmed…and it was too short. And too wide at the bottom. And too baggy at the back.

!”£$%^&**!!! quoth I.

Darts fixed the wide/baggy. After some thought, I decided to draft a band/false hem for the lower edges. This was faffy. I don’t like pattern drafting! I cut the bands out as 2 layers of lawn, one of organza. I machined the side seams, and the bottom edge, then turned under the top seam allowance, pressed and trimmed. I laid this over the raw edge of the shirt, and pinned it in place. Then I flipped it over, and trimmed, pressed and basted the other side into position to get the edges neatly lined up. Then I edge stitched it down.

Wifelet tried it on again and decided it was still too loose. I decided to bin it. She begged. I relented. I unpicked some of the french seams at the side, and basically made them into darts as well. Sort of.

It’s not as pretty as it was, but it fits reasonably well, and she’s happy.

(Although not happy enough to bother to change out of that black bra lol!)